- MN: Feds raid businesses in Minnesota fraud investigation
Source: CNN
“A long-running investigation of fraud involving federal funding in Minnesota entered a new, highly visible phase Tuesday morning as uniformed law enforcement agents executed search warrants in the Minneapolis area. Twenty-two federal search warrants were executed in Minnesota, a federal official told CNN. Most of the locations were businesses that are recipients of Medicaid funding, including child care facilities, according to CNN affiliate KARE, citing unnamed sources. The raids dealt with allegations of fraud, the Department of Homeland Security said.” (04/28/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/28/us/minnesota-fraud-investigation
- EU “ready” to sanction Israel over Russian vessel carrying stolen Ukrainian grain
Source: Euronews [EU]
“The European Union has warned Israel that it is ready to impose sanctions on those aiding and abetting the trade of Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia in the occupied territories, after a new ship loaded with the cereal arrived in the city of Haifa. ‘The EU has taken note of the reports that a Russian shadow fleet vessel carrying stolen Ukrainian grain has been allowed to unload at Haifa port in Israel, despite previous contacts of Ukraine with Israeli authorities on the subject,’ a European Commission spokesperson told Euronews. … The arrival of the Panama-flagged vessel in Haifa has escalated tensions between Ukraine and Israel. The vessel, named Panormitis and allegedly carrying over 6,200 tonnes of wheat and 19,000 tonnes of barley, has yet to unload. However, a shipment of stolen Ukrainian grain was allowed to proceed earlier this month.” (04/28/26)
- Mali: Junta leader meets Russian ambassador after attacks the Kremlin called “a coup attempt”
Source: SFGate
“Mali’s junta leader met with Russia’s ambassador to Bamako on Tuesday, authorities said, his first public appearance since the West African nation saw a massive, coordinated attack by Islamic militants and separatists over the weekend. Russia, the junta’s key ally, called the attack a coup attempt. The office of the military leader, Assimi Goita, released photos showing him meeting a Russian delegation led by the Ambassador Igor Gromyko in what appeared to be the presidential palace in Bamako, the Malian capital. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Mali issued a security alert, citing ‘possible terrorist movements within Bamako, including reports of forced school closures.’ In power since a 2020 coup, the junta suffered a major attack on Saturday after al-Qaida-linked militants and the separatist Azawad Liberation Front group staged coordinated attacks on at least four cities in a region considered a global hot spot for terror-related deaths.” (04/28/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/mali-s-junta-leader-meets-russian-ambassador-22230310.php
- Japan Airlines trials humanoid robots as ground handlers
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Japan Airlines (JAL) will start using humanoid robots in ground handling tasks at Tokyo’s Haneda airport from May, in a two-year trial it said is aimed at easing employees’ workload. For a start, the Chinese-made robots will be deployed to load and unload cargo containers, JAL and GMO AI & Robotics, its partner in the project, said in a demonstration to the media on Monday. Japan’s aviation industry is wrestling with a labour crunch brought on by an increase in inbound tourism and a declining working-age population, said JAL, which employs some 4,000 ground handling staff. The carrier hopes that these robots can also be used to clean cabins and operate ground support equipment in future. Robots are already being used in some airports across Japan, including for security patrol and retail.” (04/28/26)
- Switzerland: Court Discontinues Karimova Trial
Source: US News & World Report
“Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court has discontinued a money laundering trial against Gulnara Karimova, a daughter of Uzbekistan’s former president, on the grounds that she is not allowed to leave her country in time. The court said no judgment could be reached before the statute of limitations expires on the alleged offences, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported, citing the judge. Karimova, who has previously denied any wrongdoing, is accused of taking bribes and running a criminal organisation known as ‘The Office’ that allegedly channelled hundreds of millions of dollars to accounts in Switzerland between 2005 and 2013. … Karimova is serving a prison sentence in Uzbekistan until December 2028, while the statute of limitations for the offences alleged by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland expires over the course of that year.” (04/28/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-28/swiss-court-discontinues-karimova-trial
- NY: US soldier, charged with using intel to win $400,000 on Maduro raid, to appear in court
Source: SFGate
“A U.S. special forces soldier is due in federal court in New York on Tuesday on charges that he used classified information about the mission to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to win more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, has been charged with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. The case comes during heavy scrutiny on prediction markets, which allow people to trade or wager on almost anything, as policymakers call for stricter regulation of the platforms amid concerns about insider trading.” (04/28/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/us-soldier-charged-with-using-intel-to-win-400k-22229443.php
- Kimmel responds to White House whining
Source: USA Today
“Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel responded to calls from the White House for him to be fired by Disney and ABC by telling first lady Melania Trump to speak to President Donald Trump about what he called the president’s ‘violent rhetoric.’ ‘I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it,’ Kimmel said during his monologue on the April 27 episode of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Kimmel mirrored the language the first lady used when suggesting ABC should axe him over a joke at her expense, he told days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.” (04/28/26)
- Taylor Swift files to trademark her voice and likeness in era of AI deepfakes
Source: NBC News
“Taylor Swift is taking new steps to protect her voice and likeness from AI misuse. The global pop superstar on Friday filed trademark applications for two audio clips of her voice. … Swift also filed for a third trademark to protect an image of her onstage, wearing one of her signature sparkly bodysuits and strumming a pink guitar. … The Grammy winner has been the target of numerous deepfakes in recent years. Fake clips of her promoting a brand of cookware have tricked fans online, sexually suggestive deepfakes of her have gone viral on social media, and even President Donald Trump shared manipulated photos of her supporting his candidacy.” (04/27/26)
- Australia: Regime moves to tax Meta, Google, and Tiktok, redistribute wealth as corporate media welfare
Source: Seattle Times
“Australia has proposed taxing digital giants Meta, Google and TikTok a proportion of their revenue to pay for news reporters. The government released draft legislation Tuesday it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for the social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism. The platforms’ criticisms included that the proposal was a ‘digital services tax’ that misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector.” (04/28/26)
- Belarus: Regime frees prominent journalist Andrzej Poczobut in 10-person prisoner swap
Source: SFGate
“Prominent journalist Andrzej Poczobut has been released from jail in Belarus in a swap with Poland that saw a total of 10 people freed as the authoritarian leader of Belarus seeks improved relations with the West, officials in both countries said Tuesday. Poczobut, a correspondent for the influential Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a leading figure among Belarus’ Polish minority, was serving eight years in prison in a case condemned as politically motivated. His 2021 arrest after covering pro-democracy rallies in Belarus drew widespread criticism. He later was awarded the Sakharov Prize, the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Poczobut a symbol of the fight for freedom in Belarus but also of the effectiveness of the Polish state in leaving no one behind. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who welcomed Poczobut at the border about midday Tuesday, posted on X that the journalist was ‘unwavering.'” (04/28/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/belarus-frees-journalist-andrzej-poczobut-in-22229752.php
- UK: Regime to appeal High Court ruling that granted Palestine Action a victory
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The United Kingdom is set to appeal the High Court’s landmark ruling that the government’s ban on Palestine Action was illegal. The two-day hearing, which begins on Tuesday at the Court of Appeal in London, comes after top judges described the proscription of the direct-action group as a terrorist organisation as ‘disproportionate’ in February. This week’s case marks the latest development in the legal battle between the state and the activist network whose stated mission is to target companies associated with the Israeli military. Since the UK banned Palestine Action last summer, thousands of Britons have participated in a coordinated campaign of civil disobedience, with more than 2,700 people arrested under terror laws for holding up signs reading, ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’” (04/28/26)
- Canada: Carney launches sovereign wealth fund
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Canada is launching a government-owned investment fund to pay for major development projects in the country, Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced. The Canada Strong Fund, a first for the country, will invest in energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology, with an initial contribution of C$25bn ($18.4bn; £13.5bn). The fund will also allow Canadians who have ‘a bit of extra money’ to invest into it directly, but experts have warned it risks ‘limited returns.’ The move is part of a broader goal by the Carney government to boost Canada’s economy in face of US tariff threats. At Monday’s announcement in Ottawa, Carney said that Canada was at a critical point in its history due to its changing relationship with the US, requiring it to invest and build at an urgent pace.” (04/28/26)
- DOJ asks court to dismiss White House ballroom lawsuit after shooting
Source: United Press International
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Monday that the Justice Department has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, citing the weekend’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Completion of the $400 million ballroom, which has been under construction since early fall, has been threatened by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s lawsuit, leaving a construction site where the East Wing of the White House once stood. A federal and Republican push for its completion has intensified after an armed man was arrested at the annual charity dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, with lawmakers and White House officials claiming the 90,000-square-foot ballroom is a security necessity.” (04/28/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/04/28/DOG-ballroom/9531777345765/
- OK, “Gun Control” Had Its Chance — Here Are The Results
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“‘Gun control’ had chance after chance after chance to prove it could thwart Allen’s plans. And. It. Didn’t. Whoa … violent criminals don’t obey ‘gun control’ laws and private venue gun rules any more than they obey other kinds of laws and rules? Whodathunkit? It’s not that the laws and rules aren’t adequately enforced. The only way to reliably prevent Allen from traveling from LA to DC with guns would have been to force him to travel on foot and buck naked … after which he’d have almost certainly been able to buy a gun on the street if he wanted one.” (04/28/26)
- Free Speech is About Individual Liberty, Not Viewpoint Discrimination
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya“Supreme Court rulings are significant not only for their decision on who wins, but also for their reasoning. A victory for common sense may sometimes be pyrrhic if it benefits the party who wins the dispute but relies on reasoning that erodes individual liberty in the longer term. In that context, while the outcome in the recent case of Chiles v. Salazar, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (decided March 31, 2026) was welcomed, the emphasis it placed on ‘viewpoint discrimination’ is unfortunate. It is one more step down the road to conceptualizing free speech as an application of the non-discrimination principle, rather than as an emanation of individual liberty.” (04/28/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/free-speech-about-individual-liberty-not-viewpoint-discrimination
- Is America a Racist Nation?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Wendy McElroy“When an entire country is called racist, the accusation has at least two parts: one, racism is built into the foundational structure or institutions of the nation, and, two, it is a defining belief of the population.” (04/28/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/is-america-a-racist-nation/
- Congress Keeps Choosing Inflation
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia“The Republican Party’s victory lap over no tax on tips and no tax on overtime rings hollow, considering persistent public frustration with the cost of living. It doesn’t help that Trump’s tariff war and the war in Iran are further fueling rising prices. And voter frustration isn’t just about recent price changes. It’s also about the lasting damage from the inflation surge of 2021–2022, which pushed the overall price level permanently higher. There’s one cure, however, that Washington continues to miss. Inflation is increasingly driven by unsustainable budget policy, and politicians on both sides of the aisle keep pouring gasoline on the fiscal fire.” (04/28/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/congress-keeps-choosing-inflation/
- The Fading Trump Presidency
Source: The Dispatch
by Yascha Mounk“Predicting Donald Trump’s political demise has typically been a fool’s errand. Some of my smartest friends have declared his definitive fall from grace again and again, only to be proven wrong each and every time. … And yet, I have come to the tentative conclusion that this time may, finally, be different. For the past decade, Trump has dominated American politics like no other president in living memory; now, signs of that era coming to a close are suddenly multiplying. It is, as Saturday’s appalling assassination attempt on the president reminds us, impossible to see around the next historical corner. But it sure seems as though Trump’s hold over the country is finally slipping. This, to misquote Winston Churchill, no longer feels like the end of the beginning; it may be the beginning of the end.” (04/28/26)
- A vote of liberty amid Gaza’s ashes
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“One mark of a maturing democracy is a high proportion of independent voters, unbeholden to organized factions and attuned to unifying a civic community on shared hopes. In the Middle East, such sentiments have risen in recent years, from Iraq to Lebanon and perhaps soon in a newly liberated Syria. But in Gaza? After two years of devastating war? On Saturday, in an election held for the first time anywhere in Gaza in nearly two decades, voters showed a surprising degree of autonomy from the two major Palestinian parties. Balloting was held in only one city, Deir al-Balah, with more than 70,000 people, due to every other city in Gaza being flattened during fighting after the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. And voting was only for 15 seats in the municipal council.” (04/27/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0427/A-vote-of-liberty-amid-Gaza-s-ashes
- AI and the First Amendment
Source: Liberalism.org
by Corbin Barthold“‘Defendants fail to articulate why words strung together by an LLM are speech.’ With that curious line, one of the first judges to confront the question suggested, in the teeth of law and logic, that AI outputs might not be protected by the First Amendment. Consider what that would mean. If the outputs of large language models were not treated as protected expression, the government would have sweeping power to dictate what they can and cannot say — even what they must say. Already, sixty percent of Americans, and nearly three-quarters of those under thirty, use AI to find information. Those numbers will only grow. AI is fast becoming a medium through which hundreds of millions of people form opinions and make sense of the world. A government with control over AI outputs could twist that pursuit of truth — rewriting the past, shading the present, and warping the future.” (04/28/26)
- Iran Will Be Shorter Than Iraq. Will It Be Better?
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III“It is the attempted political transformation of foreign countries, especially in the Middle East, that leads inevitably to American failure. George W. Bush wasn’t unsuccessful at overthrowing Saddam Hussein or the Taliban. He was unable to quickly replace them with anything better (or in the case of the Taliban, after 20 years in Afghanistan, really to replace them at all). Trump of course doesn’t want to devote much time or resources to a political transformation of Iran …. He is perfectly happy to stroll into Pottery Barn, smash everything on the shelf, and then leave someone else with the bill. The problem is that means you have to either leave behind a political vacuum or do business with the remnants of the regime you went to war with in the first place.” (04/28/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/iran-will-be-shorter-than-iraq-will-it-be-better/
- The Trauma and the Terror Among Us: The Global War on Terror’s Journey Home
Source: TomDispatch
by Andrea Mazzarino“America’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been receiving lots of scrutiny right now from journalists and ordinary citizens like me — and for good reason! Detaining people en route to their kids’ schools, in hospitals, or at work shouldn’t be the first thing that comes to mind these days when I think of ‘freedom,’ ‘civil rights’ or ‘America.’ Nor should spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to rebuild warehouses so that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, can hold people without charges in subhuman conditions. What do you think? In all of this mayhem, it’s easy to overlook new human rights violations because there are so many each day. Violations of the rule of law have become the air Americans breathe.” (04/28/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-global-war-on-terrors-journey-home/
- The true tax reduction is reduction in government outlays
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak“Government uses various methods to divert wealth from wealth producers toward its activities. These methods include direct and indirect taxes and levies, monetary printing as a result of government borrowings from the central bank and borrowings from the private sector. The method of diverting wealth is of secondary importance. What matters here is that wealth is taken from wealth producers. The more that is taken, the higher the effective tax imposed on the wealth-generating private sector is going to be.” (04/28/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/04/the-true-tax-reduction-is-reduction-in-government-outlays/
- Dems have power to stop all the violent rhetoric, and if not their silence is tacit approval
Source: New York Post
by Karol Markowicz“In the week before the latest attempted assassination of President Trump, The New York Times conducted the softest of softball interviews with leftist pundit Hasan Piker. A typical line from Piker on his Twitch livestream: ‘Let the streets soak in [landlords’] red Capitalist blood.’ Talking to the Times, Piker refused to condemn Luigi Mangione for murdering a complete stranger, Brian Thompson — because, in Piker’s view, Thompson had committed ‘social murder’ by being the CEO of a health-insurance company. Piker isn’t ‘a fringe figure’ on the left [sic]. He has interviewed major Democrats and plans to sit down with California Gov. Gavin Newsom soon. New York Times journalists nod along with his ideas. If that’s fringe, what’s mainstream? The alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter also didn’t sound fringe in his manifesto.” (04/27/26)
- New lawsuit may finally bring Epstein files transparency
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan“President Donald Trump’s televised tantrum during his April 26 interview with ’60 Minutes’ on CBS News – which aired a day after he was rushed from an event after it was crashed by a gunman – revealed the obvious fear he still holds about the Epstein files. Those more than 6 million documents potentially detail the life and crimes of his former friend, the now-dead registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. I think we’ll see more of that fear and more tantrums from Trump as the push for transparency with the Epstein files intensifies, since only about half of them have been released. Katie Phang, a former prosecutor who now works as an independent journalist, sued the Department of Justice on April 27, asking a federal judge to appoint a special master to review and release more Epstein files.” (04/28/26)
- Three Recent Examples Of AI Being Used For Empire Propaganda
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“In the last few days I’ve seen three separate instances of generative AI being used to promote propaganda for US-Israeli war agendas which are worth paying attention to. Firstly, an Israel-based company called Generative AI for Good has been creating deepfakes of supposedly real women who say they were sexually assaulted by government forces in Iran. … The Canary notes that Generative AI for Good is staffed with Israelis who have very conspicuous agendas, including a creative director who pushes the discredited narrative about mass rapes on October 7, a marketing manager who served in the IDF’s ‘Psychotechnical Headquarter,’ and a founder who said in early 2024 that ‘Artificial intelligence is a secret weapon of ours’ in using the revolutionary technology to bolster the military’s efforts both online and on the ground in the information war being waged alongside the military battlefields in Gaza.” (04/28/26)
- Heritage Foundation Essentially Wants Congress to Refuse to Seat Members
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“The conservative movement is moving further away from the Constitution.” (04/28/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/heritage-foundation-essentially-wants
- COVID Discriminations
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Oscar Grau“Becoming infected by a pathogen is normally accidental and very different from engaging in self-destructive behavior. In fact, one could argue that public health authorities should treat chronic self-destructive behavior in adults differently from genetic disorders in young children, given that most people would likely agree that the costs associated with such behavior are not as easily justified as those associated with the latter. Yet, this actually shows that the discriminatory possibilities are endless and highlights the arbitrariness of the public health system. For a start, this system redistributes its overall costs as a burden for those most responsible for their own health and as a benefit for the most careless. That is, it socializes the costs of irresponsible health behavior. The only solution to this inherent flaw is the total abolition of the public health system.” (04/28/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/covid-discriminations
- Americans Once Understood Birthright Citizenship
Source: The Atlantic
by Lawrence Glickman“Newspaper columnists instructed generations of citizens about the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, the country seems to have forgotten how clear the law is.” (04/28/26)
- Virginia’s “Lobster district” is a gerrymandered Godzilla
Source: Fox News Forum
by Jonathan Turley“‘Incredible, unstoppable titan of terror!’ Those words advertising the 1954 movie Godzilla could be the billing of a new freakish giant stretching across the sleeping farm fields of Virginia. Now in a court near you is The Lobster, a monster over 100 miles long. The only saving grace is that this creature only devours Republicans, leaving roughly half the state with virtually no representation in Congress. Virginia was a quiet, pastoral state before the creature’s appearance. It was considered the gold standard among states rejecting gerrymandering, with fairly divided districts in a state divided right down the middle. It then elected a governor, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who assured voters that she was adamantly against gerrymandering and then immediately called for the most radical gerrymandered map in the nation after she was elected.” (04/28/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-virginias-lobster-district-gerrymandered-godzilla
- Iran and Russia are gaming the United States, and winning
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ian Proud“Both Russia and Iran illustrate that wars with oil-rich countries cause oil prices to surge. By using actual warfare alongside economic warfare, the Trump Administration has increased Iran’s economic advantages at America’s expense. With Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner no-showing in Islamabad for peace talks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi continued his shuttle diplomacy to Oman and Moscow on Monday. It is without question that Iran and Russia are two countries who have in many ways shocked the world community with their resilience in the face of sanctions and embargoes.” (04/28/26)
- Back to Life from the Brink
Source: Chris’s Substack
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra“My life with disability has been the subject of several interviews through the years, including one that appeared in Folks magazine in January 2018, and an interview conducted in February 2023 by Léa Hirschfeld that is finally being released today as part of an Out of Sync Podcast series, which explores ‘life through disability, one story at a time.’ Listening back to the interview, recorded less than three months after my sister’s death, I was struck not by how much had changed, but by how much had endured. The interview is broader in its subject matter than I’d remembered. It deals not only with my medical challenges, but also with my work on Ayn Rand, libertarianism, and dialectics. It explores the dangers of ideological rigidity in the face of real-world constraints, the need to live in a known reality, rather than an unknown ideal.” (04/28/26)
https://chrismatthewsciabarra.substack.com/p/153e7046-0763-48db-b764-57e047730828
- Making Money … Less Useful?
Source: EconLog
by Christine Brady“Menger’s ‘saleableness’ is a lot like our term ‘liquidity.’ A more saleable good can be more easily sold at any time without having to lower the price. A house, for example, is not very saleable, because it might take months to find a good buyer, as contrasted with Girl Scout cookies, which have much broader appeal—even children can sell them. Because it’s hard to find someone willing to make a direct exchange for exactly what you want, Menger argued that people traded for more saleable items, which they would then use for exchanges. Over time, the most saleable commodities became the naturally emergent money. If people tend to trade for more saleable goods, why would they ever buy a gift card?” (04/28/26)
- The Army That Photographs Its Own Contempt
Source: Common Dreams
by Yahia Lababidi“On April 19, 2026, an image circulated of an Israeli soldier standing before a statue of Jesus Christ in Debel, a Maronite Christian village in southern Lebanon, bringing a hammer down upon the sacred face while another soldier recorded him. The image spread within hours because it seemed to compress a moral education into one gesture. Tucker Carlson was furious. So was a segment of the American right that has, for years, supplied the political and theological conditions that produced this soldier. That is the story the image tells, if you are willing to read it past the shock. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli soldiers have assembled one of the most extensive self-incriminating records in the history of modern warfare.” (04/28/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israeli-army-photographs-crimes
- The Monetary Origins of the American Revolution
Source: Law & Liberty
by Leonidas Zelmanovitz“According to [Andrew David] Edwards, differing conceptions of money between Britain and the colonies lay at the heart of the imperial conflict. As he presents it, the main differences rely on the ‘temporary’ nature of colonial money versus the ‘permanent’ nature of imperial money, and the fact that colonial money, in his account, had no link to precious metals. Yet these distinctions, while rhetorically powerful, ultimately collapse under scrutiny. The divergences he identifies appears less substantial than he suggests, though—a point that becomes clearer when one considers the broader economic context. Both sides of the Atlantic were, in practice, grappling with the same fundamental constraint: the scarcity and high cost of precious metals.” (04/28/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-monetary-origins-of-the-american-revolution/
- Nuclear Weapons Didn’t Save Lives in 1945. They Wouldn’t Today Either
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ivana Nikolić Hughes and Peter Kuznick“False historical narratives abound in our contentious and divided world, as leaders and complicit historians endeavor to use public understanding of the past to push policies and gain control in the present. One of the most egregious cases is the widely accepted account of the decision by U.S. leaders to drop the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 of 1945, respectively. The generally held view, which is frequently taught in schools across the U.S. and beyond, is that the bombings were necessary to save lives, both American and Japanese …. This assessment is not only disputed by the facts, but it ignores the realities of what the bombings meant for the initiation of the Cold War and the future of humanity, in a world long awash with civilization-ending weapons.” (04/28/26)
- How Trump’s America Produces Normie Assassins
Source: The Intercept
by Natasha Lennard“There’s not a lot to glean so far about Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California. A since-deleted Bluesky account reportedly linked to the suspect included run-of-the-mill criticisms of the Trump administration; he lists himself as a self-employed video game designer and part-time teacher. According to reports, he studied mechanical engineering and computer science, was part of a Christian fellowship, and also a nerdy-sounding club for students to have battles with foam toys. He reportedly donated $25 to ActBlue in 2024 earmarked for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. He was a registered voter with ‘no party preference’ in California. From the evidence available so far, the suspect seems to be a normie. Trump’s regime can give rise to a normie suspected assassin because the brutality and violence it has so wholly normalized, and the impunity it has reveled in, is deranging.” (04/27/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/04/27/white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-trump/
- Leftist [sic] Fundamentals: Violence, Hatred, and Lying
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“Cole Allen’s leftism [sic] and his attempt to kill President Trump are not the least bit surprising to anyone who knows history and leftist [sic] philosophy. Violence, hatred, and lying are cardinal principles of leftist [sic] doctrine, but certainly not their only evils. If I were, in the title, to list every vile attribute the Left [sic] believes in and practices as part of their ideology, this column would only consist of one long title. So, I’m going to stop with violence, hatred, and lying, prove [sic] that those are part of leftism, and describe other leftist [sic] barbarities in other articles. Let’s look at the above three …” (04/28/26)
- Cole Thomas Allen is a postmodern symptom
Source: UnHerd
by Sohrab Ahmari“Spectacular events — such as this weekend’s attempted assassination of President Trump and his Cabinet in Washington — can tempt us into thinking that ours is an unprecedented moment: uniquely turbulent, uniquely violent. The slightest friendship with a history book, however, gives the lie to such presentism. Case in point: from Hamilton’s death-by-duel to Lincoln’s demise to the JFK assassination, political violence has run parallel to American constitutional stability. Just because some things are historical constants, however, doesn’t mean their essential characteristics remain unchanged.” (04/27/26)
- Cato Podcast, 04/28/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Congress Is AWOL in America’s Iran War.” (04/28/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/congress-awol-americas-iran-war
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/28/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“US Desperate To Open Hormuz Strait That Was Open Before US Attack!” (04/28/26)
- Rising, 04/28/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Sen. Bernie Sanders set to speak with a Chinese organization on the importance of AI safety.” (04/28/26)
- Trump Watch, 04/28/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Trump Assassination Attempt.” (04/28/26)
- Uncanny Valley, 04/28/26
Source: Wired
“Stop Trying to Unmask Satoshi Nakamoto.” (04/28/26)
https://www.wired.com/story/the-big-interview-podcast-ben-mckenzie-crypto/
- The Corbett Report, episode 500
Source: The Corbett Report
“What NO ONE Is Saying About Polymarket.” (04/28/26)
https://corbettreport.com/what-no-one-is-saying-about-polymarket/
- The Good Fight, 04/28/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“David Bromwich on Why Americans Have Lost Faith in Universities.” (04/28/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 04/27/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US-Israeli Strikes Killed 1,460 Iranian Civilians, Finland To Lift Nuke Import Ban, and More.” (04/27/26)
- Bulwark Takes, 04/27/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Florida Republicans Go Full Gerrymander To Cut Out Democrats (w/ Marc Caputo).” (04/27/26)